The chute's cool, but past that the figure is pretty top quality from head to toe... My only gripes are pretty minor ones like the web harness having no paint detailing (so it looks pretty toyish), the lack of ankles is a slight bummer...

I get the articulation cuts annoying the Joe guys, but honestly this Cobra feels just as poseable as any other Joe I have. The double-hinge knee seems really unnecessary at this point. Maybe even excessive... Kinda like ball jointed wrists. neat, but unnecessary. For Star Wars I feel that way on ankles to be honest. Neat, but not necessary on many figures. Jedi and army builders only really, to me. On Joes I'd say mains/army builders but secondary guys, no. Maybe add Ninjas too since their weird poses are kind of integral to that excessive articulation.

Anyway, I want a Retaliation Joe Trooper but haven't seen one in a bit... I'll live without it if I don't see it. I want it for a nice "modern" Greenshirt to stand next to the Dollar General Duke I got... Like old school/new school comparison.

Not all the Retaliation guys look too hot... Duke for instance. But some really are outstanding figures IMO. Red Ninja looks good, the two troopers, Zartan looks cool... And those multi-packs are insanely cool IMO and a good deal. Too bad this line got a kick in the nuts from the film's delay.

I'm with you on not all figures needing the extra articulation. I generally prefer the swivel wrist to the ball-jointed, since the ball-jointed wrist just looks goofy. And I'm totally with you on ankles; very few figures need this. The exception is the new swivel ankle that they've put on the Red Ninjas, Storm Shadow, and Snake Eyes. That is a cool joint for ninjas. The Joe Trooper doesn't need it, though.

I just find it so remarkable that my local Walmarts/Targets have sold through this Wave and already restocked it multiple times in the past few weeks. These same stores cannot get a new F-ing SW figure on their pegs to save their lives.

I could have easily army built every figure from this wave, even the variants like Black CC.

That's how it is supposed to work...make it easy for consumers to purchase your product.

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Slice you open like a tauntaun, faster than the Autobahn, Or a motorbike in Tron, do the deed and then I'm gone.

I thought that, based on card date stamps, it had already been decided that the blue CC was first and the black was the running change...making him probably the standard so the blue will be the "variant?" Maybe I was wrong on that?

E...

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"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

I ran across a blue CC at Walmart this weekend and picked it up. The date stamp on this figure is 20611 while the black CC that I bought from Target, on launch day, is 20751. That would date the blue version earlier than the black.

I have 4 GI Joe troopers, 2 each blue and tan helmets/cloaks. One blue version was purchased at Walmart at launch and the two tan versions were purchased at Target, one on launch and the other a week or so later when they put up another case. The second blue version was picked up for me by a friend and I forget now if it was at Walmart or Kmart.

One blue version is dated 20621 and the other is 20651. Both tan versions are 20751. I mixed up the two blue versions so I don't know now which I bought and which came from another location.

On Sunday I spotted two blue version GI Joe Troopers and, I believe, a blue CC at Toys-R-Us. I didn't check the date stamps and for the price they charge, didn't buy any. I don't know how long they've been there, the pegs were pretty full, so they could have put out multiple cases at launch and not sold any, sold through and restocked or just filled up partially empty pegs.

If I had to make a guess, I would guess that the black CC and tan GI Joe Trooper are the running change and that they were meant to go forward. But, with the line being cancelled and coming back next year, anything could happen. There could still be cases of each out there waiting to get stocked, Hasbro could be holding on to more W1 and we don't have any idea yet what's already packed up, as carry forward figures, in post W1 cases. We also don't know yet if Hasbro will go back into production on W1 characters either as additional W1 case packs or as carry forward figures and what version those might be.

Lots of stuff up in the air right now. But, again, if I had to guess, if there had been no interruption to the releases, we probably wouldn't see more blue versions of either figure after that first release.

E...

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"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

The K-Mart sale is pretty good. I'm ashamed to say I picked up the AWE Striker last week for $12, and I plan to get a couple of the Fangboats and maybe the motorcycle sets later this week. The worst part (aside from me considering those motorcycles) is that K-Marts around here have been very picked over for the single figures, even before the sale, so nothing good is left.

If anyone is looking for a Red Ninja, blue CC, or blue Joe Trooper feel free to shoot me a PM. I have one of each MOC that I'm trying to get rid of.